forcing

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔː(ɹ).sɪŋ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹ.sɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)sɪŋ

forcing (countable and uncountable, plural forcings)

1. (horticulture) The art of raising plants at an earlier season than is normal, especially by using a hotbed
2. (photography) An extension in the development time of an underexposed negative in order to bring out detail
3. (set theory) A technique used to prove the consistency of certain axioms in set theory. See forcing (mathematics).
4. (climatology, countable) The net flux of energy in or out of a system; the net change in an energy balance.

   orbital / astronomical forcing (effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of Earth's axis and shape of its orbit)

   • 1991, Alfred George Fischer, Orbital forcing and sedimentary sequences: a special issue:
   • 1991, Frederik Johan Hilgen, Astronomical Forcing and Geochronological Application of Sedimentary Cycles in the Mediterranean Pliocene-Pleistocene, Faculteit Aardwetenschappen Der Rijksuniversiteit Te Utrecht:

     […] in improving the transfer function of these proxy data and in modelling the response of the climate system to the astronomical forcing over the last 3 Ma with a particular attention paid to the phase relations between insolation, […]

   • 2002 August 26, Richard A. Muller, Gordon J. MacDonald, Ice Ages and Astronomical Causes: Data, Spectral Analysis and Mechanisms, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 19:

     Franz Kuhnert, 18881 2.1 WHY ASTRONOMICAL FORCING? In the 1840s, James Croll assumed that the ice ages were driven by changes in the orbit of the Earth. The astronomical origin was likewise taken as natural by Milutin Milankovitch, […]

   • 2006 March 30, Martin Beniston, Climatic Change and Its Impacts: An Overview Focusing on Switzerland, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 53:

     The astronomic forcing of climate In the course of its 4.5 billion-year history, Earth's climate has been relatively warm for about 90% of the time. Climate has changed on long time scales in response to the evolution of the Sun and […]

   • 2011 June 20, Luca Ridolfi, Paolo D'Odorico, Francesco Laio, Noise-Induced Phenomena in the Environmental Sciences, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 156:

     […] the 100,000-yr periodicity observed in climate fluctuations may result from the combined effect of a weak (deterministic) astronomic forcing and background environmental noise in a complex, nonlinear system with internal feedbacks.

   • 2017, Caroline Louise Prescott, Orbital Forcing and Its Importance in Understanding the Warm Pliocene:

• 2021 August 20, Cameron Dunn, Kim Adams, David Holmes, Simon Oakes, Sue Warn, Michael Witherick, Michael Chiles, Pearson Edexcel A Level Geography Book 1 Fourth Edition, Hodder Education, →ISBN:

  Orbital/astronomic forcing: A mechanism that alters the global energy balance and forces the climate to change in response.

forcing

1. present participle and gerund of force

forcing (not comparable)

1. (bridge) Pertaining to a bid which requires partner to continue bidding rather than pass.